y crushed
like cheese between the huge rollers of the copper-mill: on one hand,
there was an old furnace, that had done good duty in times past, in
the process of being dismantled; on the other, was one about being
rebuilt; and again there was still another, that had, from long
service, become so impregnated with copper, that it was actually being
built over by a larger one, to be melted in its turn!

We shall avail ourselves of the valuable services of Mr Morgan, the
manager for Messrs Vivian, in our walks round the works, although it
is not our intention to give a technical description of
copper-smelting.[4] Such a course would be alike uninteresting to the
reader and unsatisfactory to ourselves. A consecutive description,
however brief, of what we saw, would, in like manner, carry us far
beyond our limits; and we therefore purposely confine ourselves to
whatever is popularly interesting and instructive in the process.

First in order, then, we proceed to the ore-yard, which presents a
very motley appearance. Under its capacious roof there were tons upon
tons of every variety of ore--native and foreign, blue and red, green
and yellow, and all intermediate colours--indiscriminately piled
around. There was the beautiful green malachite from Australia, the
gray sulphuret from Algiers, the phosphate from Chili, and the
hydrous-carbonate from Spain. There was the glistening yellow
sulphuret from Cuba, the silicate from Brazil, the bright-blue
carbonate from the sunny regions of the south, and the dark-brown
oxide from the colder regions of the north. There was regulus from New
Zealand, and the good old pyrites from the Cornish mines; some
compounds with arsenic, antimony, and numerous other substances; and
last, though in one sense not least, there was a solitary specimen of
ore from Ireland.

These ores were all in the form of a coarse powder. The regulus we
have mentioned is simply the sulphuret deprived, by a preliminary
operation, of its extraneous earthy matters; and this is frequently
effected in the localities where it is produced, such as New Zealand
and Chili, the expense of transport from these places being very
considerable.

'And what is this?' we inquired, looking at a black earthy substance
the workmen at that moment were discharging from a vessel.

'Ah!' said our friend, 'that is a commodity which, I suspect, you know
something about. It is a waste product from certain foundries and
chemical works--fr